Anton Gorodetsky's Protective Relationship with Egor

Anton Gorodetsky's protective relationship with Egor begins as a professional intervention during a vampire hunt and deepens into a personal commitment that forces Anton to confront the limits of the Night Watch's authority, the nature of choice, and the cost of defending a boy whose destiny remains undecided.

First Contact and Rescue

Anton first encounters Egor as the target of a vampire's Call in a dark alley near the Cosmos hotel. The boy, lured by the alluring melody, stands helpless before a female vampire who has already extended her fangs. Anton, who has spent a week attuning himself to vampire senses by drinking pig's blood and taking drugs, enters the Twilight and intervenes. He splashes vodka into the vampire's face and kills her male companion by activating the registration tag's seal, which causes the vampire's skin to shrivel and his spine to shatter. Egor, instead of fainting as expected, bolts away across the yard, moving almost as fast as the fleeing vampire. Anton realizes the boy possesses exceptional magical potential: he resisted the Call long enough to be standing when Anton arrived, and he retained full memory of the attack afterward.

Revelation and Guidance

When Anton later tracks Egor to his apartment, he finds the boy has barricaded himself inside, eating garlic and wearing a silver chain in a desperate attempt to ward off vampires. Anton enters through the Twilight and explains the nature of the parallel world, the existence of Others, and the choice between Light and Darkness. Egor, terrified but sharp-witted, demands to know whether the Night Watch actually fights Dark Ones. Anton is forced to reveal the truth: vampires can hunt humans if they have a license, and the Watch merely prevents poaching. This revelation shatters Egor's trust. "Then they could have attacked me under that treaty of yours?" the boy asks. "They could have drunk my blood? And you would have just walked by and looked the other way?" Anton answers yes, and Egor orders him to leave.

Protection Through Crisis

Despite the rupture, Anton continues to guard Egor. When the female vampire returns and takes the boy hostage on the roof of his building, Anton arrives with the Night Watch operatives Tiger Cub and Bear. During the standoff, Egor demonstrates his growing power by withdrawing into the second level of the Twilight to escape the vampire's grip. Anton follows him into that dangerous depth, where time moves more slowly and the mist threatens to dissolve them forever. Egor, on the verge of surrendering to the Twilight, asks Anton why he wants to save him. "Does your Night Watch need me?" he asks. Anton answers honestly: "I don't think you'll join our Watch." He then turns to leave, and only at the last moment does Egor call for help. Anton pulls him out, sacrificing his own blood to break the Twilight's hold.

The Climactic Choice

Months later, when the vigilante Maxim targets Egor as a future Dark One, Anton intercepts the attack. Maxim, a self-taught Light Magician who can see Darkness but not Light, believes he must kill the boy to serve justice. Anton throws himself between them, taking Maxim's wooden dagger in his chest. As he lies bleeding, Egor steps in front of him to shield him from a second blow. "A future Dark Magician saving a Light One from another Light One," Anton observes. In the final confrontation on the roof, when Svetlana holds the Chalk of Destiny over Egor's Book of Destiny, Anton refuses to advise her. He has used all the Power he gathered from human happiness on a remoralization of himself, choosing to do nothing rather than risk making the wrong choice. Svetlana erases Egor's destiny instead of rewriting it, leaving him curled on the roof, his future undetermined.

Thematic Significance

Anton's protection of Egor is never about converting the boy to the Light. It is about preserving his right to choose. Anton tells Egor the truth about the Treaty even when it costs him the boy's trust. He pulls him from the Twilight without demanding allegiance. He takes a wound meant for him. And in the end, he refuses to manipulate Egor's destiny, even when the Night Watch's entire plan depends on it. The relationship becomes a test of Anton's own ethics: he must decide whether protection means control or freedom. By choosing the latter, he affirms that the boy's undefined future is worth more than any predetermined outcome, whether Light or Dark.